GMB

16 August 2003
NEW DISPUTES are brewing among British Airways workers at Heathrow. Some 4,500 BA engineers moved a step closer to an industrial dispute when their union negotiators failed to reach an agreement with BA management last week. The engineers are represented by the Amicus and GMB unions. They are potentially an extremely powerful group of workers.

09 August 2003
AN INDUSTRIAL tribunal found that trade unionists who have been on strike against the William Cooks foundry business for over two years had been "unfairly dismissed". The 80 workers, in the GMB and Amicus-AEEU unions, were sacked in 2001 when they were involved in an official strike. Eddie Grimes, Amicus-AEEU member and striker, spoke to Socialist Worker about the result:

19 July 2003
THE CRISIS over pensions has provoked another group of workers into strike action to defend their final salary pension scheme. Some 600 workers at the Rhodia chemical firm in Oldbury and Widnes were set to strike on Friday this week. The workers are members of the GMB and Amicus unions. The multinational wants to close their pension scheme to new entrants.

19 July 2003
THE WORKERS at Remploy, the government-aided company that mainly employs disabled workers, have given Remploy's final wage offer a massive 70 percent rejection. This comes after underhand bully-boy tactics from the board. The 5,700 workers are members of several unions - the biggest is the GMB, but some are in the TGWU, GPMU and KFAT.

28 June 2003
"UNIONS HAVE been mobilising and we expect good delegations from the postal workers' CWU and firefighters' FBU," says Matt Saywell. He is a member of Broxbourne Against Racism, which is mobilising for Saturday's march in the Hertfordshire town where the BNP has one councillor. "The GMB London Region is also supporting the march, as are local churches," says Matt. "We've had a really good response from local people."

21 June 2003
THE POLITICAL level of this year's GMB congress was great, with really heated debates on issues like tackling racism and the war on Iraq. The congress voted to change the rulebook to expel racists from the union and to oppose the Nazi BNP.

14 June 2003
A MASS meeting last weekend saw over 120 airport workers at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport argue for possible strike action over huge pay cuts. Management want to cut baggage handlers' pay by up to 40 percent. The GMB union members are spitting blood. One worker said, "We work long hours, the shifts wear you out and now this." Paul Sillett

14 June 2003
THE SENSE that New Labour has betrayed its working class supporters ran throughout the GMB union's congress in Blackpool this week. Delegates voted unanimously to review the donations to MPs who do not share the "aims, values and priorities of the union".

14 June 2003
THE LIES told by Tony Blair to justify war on Iraq are coming back to haunt him. This week the conference of Britain's fourth biggest union, the GMB, called for a public inquiry into events leading up to the war. If Blair was found to have lied, said the motion, he should resign. The conference also supported the Stop the War Coalition and voted to review its links with Labour MPs.

07 June 2003
OVER 1,000 brick workers are set to walk out on strike on 9 June in the first of a series of planned one-day strikes. Hanson Bricks employs the workers. They are members of the TGWU, GMB and Amicus unions and work at 14 plants across England and Wales. The workers voted by over 60 percent to take strike action after rejecting the company's revised pay offer of 3.45 percent spread over 15 months.

31 May 2003
HUNDREDS OF workers for Hanson Bricks, Britain's biggest brick producer, are set to take strike action in a dispute over pay. The workers, in the TGWU, Amicus and GMB unions, have voted overwhelmingly to strike. The first strike is set for Monday 9 June. The second day of action is set for Monday 16 June.

31 May 2003
AROUND 140 council manual workers, members of the TGWU and GMB unions, met on Wednesday of last week in central Manchester to discuss resistance to the imposition of new contracts by Manchester City Council. Hundreds of cleaners and "street scene" workers face new duties and the loss of weekend working pay enhancements.

31 May 2003
COUNCIL WORKERS in Luton from the TGWU, GMB and Unison unions held a 40-strong protest of the council on Thursday of last week. Workers were protesting against plans to privatise the building, cleaning and printing departments. Jim Gregg, Unison branch secretary, said, "These are loyal, dedicated workers who after years of operating under difficult conditions are now finding themselves outsourced."

10 May 2003
AROUND 4,000 workers at the Remploy factories, which mainly employ disabled people, have voted to reject a pay offer by 81 percent. The workers, based across 82 factories, defied their unions' recommendation to accept the pay deal. Most of the workers are in the GMB and TGWU unions. The two-year deal was "self funding", which meant workers had to give up their travel expenses to fund the pay package.

03 May 2003
SCOTTISH WATER (SW) has announced 1,400 redundancies over the next two years (900 this year and 500 next year). Around 1,300 jobs have already been lost through voluntary redundancy. A year ago the four unions in SW, Unison, TGWU, GMB and AEEU,went into a partnership agreement with management.

12 April 2003
OVER 4,000 workers who deliver cash to the bulk of the "hole in the wall" cash points across Britain are to walk out on strike next week. The workers, employed by Securicor, voted by 82 percent for a strike in a ballot organised by their GMB trade union.

08 March 2003
CONTROL STAFF in the London Fire Brigade have voted unanimously to ballot for a work to rule and strike action over congestion charges. An angry mass meeting last Sunday left GMB and Unison union officials in no doubt of the strength of feeling. A claim was submitted for compensation for congestion charges over a year ago.

01 March 2003
WORKERS AT an engineering factory in Hereford walked out on a seven-day strike last week. The 400 members of the GMB union went on strike after rejecting a 1 percent pay offer with reduced overtime pay and limited sick pay. A senior shop steward at the plant, Phil Cogzell, said, "All we want is to maintain a stable income. The offer was rejected by 82 percent." The factory is the second biggest business in Hereford. The workforce are demanding a 3 percent rise.

22 February 2003
THERE ARE many things that stop Tony Blair sleeping at night. One of them is his fear that the union movement may be about to humiliate him again. Two of Britain's biggest and most influential unions, the TGWU and GMB, are about to elect new general secretaries. In both elections the candidates have not been finally decided.